Fishing

It is amazing how the weather can change so much, so fast. A strong cold front pushed through our area on Friday night and within hours temperatures dropped to the 60s and fall was here in full force. Since then, lows at night have fallen into the 40s, and as a result, water temperatures have dropped 3-5 degrees. As a result, the bite is on.

Fall is officially here, and I, for one, have been holding my breath to see whether the fish were actually going to show up and respond to their annual fall migration patterns. This past summer has been tough fishing for a variety of species, namely king mackerel and grouper.

It’s officially fall and spot are biting at our local Brunswick County piers. Reports have been coming in for the last two weeks of “yellow-bellied” spot runs up and down the coast.
Spot are the most popular saltwater panfish in the Carolinas and hordes of them show up on Brunswick County piers each autumn around this time. Already reports are much better than the last two years, when spot fishing was slow.

Those are the time-appropriate words spoken by my Grandpa Mac. He grew up in the Mississippi woods, and I’m quite sure there was some form of sanctioned catfish racing. And you may well imagine, you had better be ready when standing in the starting blocks of a catfish race.

Fall fishing is here, and that means for Brunswick County anglers it is time to gather bait and head to the water. The change in the weather became apparent last weekend when the first real cold front moved through and fall officially arrives tomorrow.
Reports are good for redfish and flounder, and there have been some spot runs on our local piers. Most encouraging, some nice speckled trout have been caught after a long summer when they were mostly absent.

Sometimes you have to make things worse before they can get better. I believe such is going to be the case with our local fishing.
This summer has been fair fishing, but nothing spectacular. After the wind of July, August was actually a good weather month, but most of the offshore fisheries were lacking. The water temperatures had risen into the mid- 80s, and despite clear waters with lots of baitfish, the predators just weren’t present.

Inshore fishing has slowed down a bit but, hopefully, that is just the usual slack time between late summer and fall. Some big fish are still being caught and offshore fishing is decent.
Before I get to the fishing report, I want to comment on the Military Appreciation Day (MAD) 6 event that went on Saturday at Oak Island. The MAD events are terrific daylong celebrations of our heroic U.S. military forces, with local (and some non-local) charter captains and saltwater boat owners volunteering to take the troops out for a free day of fishing.

Fishing is certainly feeling like fall, with lowering water temperatures and worries about hurricanes seemingly every week. Post Hurricane Irene, the inshore saltwater fishing in Brunswick County has gotten much better.
Redfish, flounder, pompano, bluefish and Spanish mackerel are being caught—not in fall numbers yet but in good early September action.